Review--Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix

Kallie Riviere, a fiery Cajun hoodoo apprentice with a talent for trouble, finds herself smack-dab in the middle of one of those times her mentor warned her about when she visits New Orleans to attend the Hecatean Alliance's annual carnival: her hard-boiled conjurer hookup ends up dead in her blood-drenched bed. And he was killed by something that Kallie would never dream of touching--the darkest of dark juju, soul-eating juju--a black dust hex that may have been meant to kill her.

Now Kallie has to use every bit of hoodoo knowledge and bayou-bred mojo she possesses to clear her own name and find the killer--even as that dark sorcerer hunts Kallie and her friends. But Kallie's search for the truth soon leads her in a direction she never anticipated--back home to Bayou Cypres Noir, and to Gabrielle LaRue, Kallie's aunt, protector, and hoodoo mentor...who is looking more and more like she just might be the one who wants Kallie dead.

Finally got around to reading Adrian Phoenix's Black Dust Mambo, the first in a new series and it was TERRIFIC! I loved it from beginning to end. If you were here yesterday for my teaser, you know that Kallie wakes up to find the man dead in her hotel room and that is when the chaos begins as one of the murdered man's friends comes looking for him in her room and he finds Kallie with him dead. Trouble begins already!

The book was rather fast paced as it is told in multiple third person point of views, which allowed us to get inside the heads of the majority of characters and there are a lot of them! They were all colorful and unique, each one standing out in their own ways so that they were rather visual. It was also great to be in the point of view of the bad guy as well, we get to know what the bad guy is thinking.

The mystery element was quite huge. I mean someone wants Kallie dead for some unknown reason, a reason we learn as we go along but Kallie doesn't learn til the end because of the multiple p.o.v.s, but it was still great. Because it builds into the mystery, and it is not quite solvable on its own, you can make guesses like I did and see where they take you.

I loved the language too, the characters had a nice Louisiana accent down pat. It helped make the characters more colorful.

There wasn't a lot of romance again this time around in my reading. But there is definitely a LOT of romantic tension and quite a few innuendos and flirting amongst the characters. It was fun to learn about all of them. And the history between them as well.

The ending was quite surprising too. Like I said, I wasn't even close to coming to the outcome, my guesses only took me so far. And there was quite a cliffhanger at the end too. The main plot threads were tied up but then of course there is one detail we've forgotten and BAM! Cliffhanger! Looking forward to reading the next book, which as of yet I don't know the title or release date. Will definitely post something once I know!

Overall I give the book 4.5/5 stars!

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